The "Plane on a Treadmill" Question

[MaggieL]

Originally Posted by tw

Treadmill only affects how fast those wheels spin. As MaggieL posted, otherwise those wheels would burn up; function instead like brakes.

I think they're in danger of burning anyway. Their friction is the only path for the treadmill to transfer energy to the airplane, and they've been specifically designed *not* to do that, whereas the engines are designed specifically to do exactly what they're doing. So the proposed takeoff failure scenario has a power transfer through friction in the wheel bearings equal to the power output of the engines (less engine system losses, of course). So even in a smallish airplane we're talking 100-200 horsepower...which is about 150 kilowatts. How long before the wheel bearings fail from heat?